Tadeusz Kościuszko

Tadeusz Kościuszko was a Polish military engineer, statesman and military leader who became a national hero in Poland, the United States, Lithuania and Belarus. Born in 1746 in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he graduated from the Corps of Cadets in Warsaw and studied in France before sailing to North America in 1776. There he served as a colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and, as an accomplished military architect, designed and oversaw fortifications including those at West Point, New York; the Continental Congress promoted him to brigadier general in 1783. Back in Poland he became a major general in 1789 and in 1794 led the uprising against the Russian Empire that bears his name, until his capture at the Battle of Maciejowice. After a pardon he emigrated to the United States, became a close friend of Thomas Jefferson, and in 1798 wrote a will dedicating his American assets to the education and freedom of enslaved people. He later lived in Switzerland until his death in 1817.